USB Stopped Working

Oct 25, 2014, 11:11 AM -05:00

Chip maker FTDI released an update that went out with recent Windows Updates. This FTDI chip is used in many USB devices. The chip is a USB to UART converter. There are many clones in the market and this update changed the manufacturer ID on these clones to zero, making them unusable on any machine ever again. FTDI has since backed down and have released an update that no longer does this, but the damage may already have been done. So if you had a USB device mysteriously stop working after installing Windows Updates, this may have been the cause. FTDI has a configuration tool that might could be used to set the ID back, if you know what it was to start with. [more]